The Role of Water Management in the Degradation Processes of Halophilic Vegetation in Hungary

Abstract

the parasite. Millions of Toxoplasma oocysts may be shed in a single stool by infected cats, and may survive for months in moist environments, water, and soil (McCullough & Remington, 1975). Cats soiling and digging up gardens (Fig. 3) and children's sandboxes (Fig. 4) may leave behind diverse parasites which can infect humans. Asymptomatic acute toxoplasmosis infections in pregnant women may result in abortion, stillbirth, and infection of the foetus. Approximately 4,500 infants are born annually in the United States with congenital toxoplasmosis (Warfield & Gay, 1986). At least 200 to 400 of these infants have severe and irreversible lesions that require permanent institutionalization. Affected infants may also develop visual, auditory, neurological, or intellectual, impairment, months or even years after becoming infected (Warfield & Gay, 1986). Aside from the facts that free-ranging cats constitute a threat to the health of other animals including people, especially children, the damage that they cause to private property, and their impoundment and destruction, cost millions of dollars of taxpayers' money (Boddicker, 1983). Restriction and Education Programme The enforcement of leash laws, the registration of all cats, a reduction of licensing fees for castrated pets, and improved control patrols, would all help to alleviate the problem of wandering house cats. Nevertheless, cat restriction programmes are unpopular and often called inhumane, unfair, or unnecessary, by cat-owners. The basic key to solving the problem lies in educating pet-owners, of course, and also those who do not own a cat or cats but whose rights are infringed upon by the pets of irresponsible owners. Responsible ownership involves controlling the freedom of pets and providing them with sufficient rations of cooked, dried, or canned, meat that is free from parasites. Cats which extend their activities beyond the limits of their owner's property may cause trouble for neighbours, destroy wildlife, and infect other animals as well as humans with serious diseases. These cats no longer correspond to the definition of a pet. They have become pests, and they must be controlled. Only an educated public will request that cats be not allowed to invade neighbouring grounds and natural areas. Only an educated public can pressure elected officials-who usually sit back with an irresolute mind on controversial issues-to act upon cat delinquency. Only then will the predation on wildlife by house cats be significantly curtailed. I thank J. Barbeau and L. Roy for their helpful comments and suggestions.

Medium‐term vegetation dynamics and their association with edaphic conditions in two Hungarian saline grassland communities

“…The cover of A. santonicum ( Figure 2b) and P. maritima (Figure 2d) showed a clear annual periodicity, whereas the other species lacked a clear annual cycle. Bagi (1988Bagi ( , 1989 reported occurrence and spread of Gypsophila muralis L. and B. hordaceus with the development of Solonetz from Solonchak soil at the Ass site. The higher species number and total vegetation cover at Ass is taken to reflect that lower salinity and alkalinity of the surface layer of Solonetz soil at this site allowed growth of relatively low salt-tolerant plants as well as salt-tolerant plants.…”

“…The higher species number and total vegetation cover at Ass is taken to reflect that lower salinity and alkalinity of the surface layer of Solonetz soil at this site allowed growth of relatively low salt-tolerant plants as well as salt-tolerant plants. Bagi (1988Bagi ( , 1989 reported occurrence and spread of Gypsophila muralis L. and B. hordaceus with the development of Solonetz from Solonchak soil at the Ass site. However, there was no occurrence of G. muralis and no increase in B. hordaceus (Figure 2c) during the study.…”

Detection of long-term landscape changes and trajectories in a Pannonian sand region: comparing land-cover and habitat-based approaches at two spatial scales

“…However, it was only apparent from the habitat-specific analyses that only mesotrophic wet meadows and Molinia meadows were relatively constant of the grasslands up until the 1950s. These areas were worthy of ploughing only after draining them in the 1960s, and following the droughts in the 1980s (Bagi 1988). The process was accelerated by governmental subsidies in the 1990's.…”

Different impacts of moderate human land use on the plant biodiversity of the characteristic Pannonian habitat complexes

“…However, the abiotic stress strongly limits the species pool (Török et al, 2012). When the soil water table decreases significantly, the alkaline character disappears, and the species poor dry grassland substitutes the alkaline vegetation (Bagi, 1988).…”